Dies the Fire (Emberverse Book 1)

I'm a big fan of Alternate History, and of S.M. Stirling's other work. I can honestly say that Dies the Fire, and the accompanying two sequels, are three of my favorite fiction novels.I won't go over the premise; you can read that from the other reviews. It's an Alien Space Bats novel (it's even lampshaded). Alien Space Bats premises don't have to make sense, but they do have to be internally consistent. In this case, it is, at least if you take the thermo and electricity separately. Simply put, the Change places an arbitrary cap on the amount of power that is output from gaseous PV-work above a certain threshold pressure. At the microscale this implies that primers and other shock-sensitive materials no longer work, at the macroscale it means the steam engine mentioned later in the book doesn't work, nor do other IC engines. To his credit, Stirling even mentions later in the series that atmospheric engines (think a Watt or Newcomen engine) still work, putting a good handle on even where the arbitrary limit is. As for the electricity, well, I won't comment on it because I don't have the background on it, but suffice to say that as far as the thermo goes, things are OK. I mean, seriously, the most popular negative review up here complains that engines don't work but that a hot air balloon does? Buoyancy and thermal expansion are both different principles from PV work.So, on to the actual book. I've mentioned before that S.M. Stirling is one of my favorite authors, and like his buddy Harry Turtledove, he has his good and not-so-good sides that are both on display in this novel.The good: a very close attention to detail, decent dialogue, and a phenomenal amount of research that went into the this novel. For the last, I don't just mean geography and the like. This guy spent a serious amount of time researching reconstruction western martial arts (as the somewhat anachronistic shout-out to HACA/ARMA proves, even though in later books he implausibly includes Japanese fencing for the hell of it). In terms of writing, the quality is middling until you get to places where Stirling wants you to take in the setting, particularly in the battle scenes or in describing fortifications. In that sense, he writes like the typical person who gets into medieval history by learning about warfare. It's good if you think like that or like history for that reason (I do, among many others) but it's not for everyone.Additionally, Stirling is a well-known alternate history writer, and he'd be a very poor one if he weren't able to convincingly trace the development of the three very different societies that arise in this book. In fact, this is one of the major themes of the series: how cultures mix and match, how ethnogenesis occurs, and how founders can affect the directions of their societies. If I were to point out one theme that was seamlessly integrated into the narrative, this would be it. The rest of the world... well, I'm going to have to disagree with Craig Clark about the speed of social collapse. I actually think that this was quite well done.Now, for the not-so-good. S.M. Stirling has several habits that are vividly on display.First, all of his characters are flamboyantly ethnic. There's quarter-Obijwa half-Finn protagonist. There's the other half-Irish half-Scots-Irish, speak-with-a-brogue protagonist. There's the family of Swedes and a Boston Brahmin. The rural Texan horsemaster and his Tejano wife. The German-Australian groundskeeper with a penchant for polka. I could go on, but you get the idea. S.M. Stirling has a thing for accents and for British, Native American, Celtic, and Scandanavian cultures in particular, and loves to incorporate that into everything he writes. He sprinkles random words of Swedish, Finnish, and most annoyingly frequently, Irish Gaelic all through the novel, just for the hell of it. It gets annoying after a while.Another aspect of S.M. Stirling's writing that I've sometimes found difficult to believe are his superhero characters, on display in every novel from Conquistador to The Peshawar Lancers. Dies the Fire is no different. Mike Havel is basically He-man. Pam Arnstein is the implausible swordmistress. Astrid Larsson is the hyper-competent, convenient LARP nerd. Will Hutton is the Horse Whisperer who dabbled in being a Magyar. Sam Aylward is Robin Hood. There are also believable characters - the middle-aged mechanical engineer, the ex-hippie organic restaurantiers... Stirling can afford to make a story without one or more of the implausible heroes. Instead he takes the easy way out and drops the necessary skills in conveniently.There are also other tics that pop up in fits of effusive logorrhea: excessive attention to meals is one of them, for example, but in this book at least (and for the first three books of the Emberverse series) it's much better than what George R.R. Martin regularly subjects us to. I appreciate the lack of dog sausage, too.To be honest, though, the above is stuff you can stomach if you're not looking for the next great American novel. None of it is a dealbreaker for me, at least, but it is for some people.There is only one thing that I found really annoying about this novel, and for that matter the entire Emberverse series, and that is the way Neopaganism is used. So, OK, Juniper Mackenzie is a Wiccan. I get it, and I also get that it's at plausible that Wiccans might be better prepared for The Change, and that in general people will become more religious during times of adversity. But... there's no reason to punch us in the face with it all the time. It's not that I mind viewing the world from a different religious viewpoint, it's that better than a third of Juniper Mackenzie's POV passages include highly detailed descriptions of neopagan religious rites. In contrast, you never see the strongly Christian characters pray, or any other religion on display for that matter. It's a very clear case of the author's research run amok, and a desire to see it all included placed above the better interest of the narrative. Especially in later books the Wiccanism just goes nuts, and to be honest on my rereadings I've found myself skipping the passages to get to the bits I know are better.At the beginning of this review, I said that the first three books of the Emberverse series are among my favorites. I can honestly still say that; among other things, they're what got me into historical european martial arts, have provided me with many a night of fun thought exercises, and are solid and well constructed novels. But obviously I can appreciate the flaws of Dies of the Fire as well. Love it or hate it - this is S.M. Stirling at his best and worst.

One of the best, if not the best apocalyptic series ever written. Great protagonists, credible characters, beautifully described world, excitement and detail in a compelling blend and frankly no flaws. Cannot recommend this classic enough as it lays the foundation for a multi generational epic that will provide great reading for years.

Have you ever been on an escalator when the motor shut off? For an instant, you're uncertain what to do; then you realize it's just like being on stairs and you go on your way. Imagine the whole world shutting down instead; coping with such a situation would not be nearly as easy. This is the topic of Dies the Fire.Dies the Fire opens on March 17, 1998. It is early evening on the West Coast when with a flash, all electronic devices shut down. This is nothing as simple as an electromagnetic pulse; even certain chemical reactions no longer work, primarily affecting guns and explosives. Things have gone instantly medieval. Many perish quickly as airplanes crash to the ground, medical devices die and looting kicks in. Soon enough other dangers are realized due to starvation and disease.The story itself focuses on two principal characters: Mike Havel is a pilot who survives his own plane crash to become the leader of a benevolent group of mercenaries; and Juniper, a pragmatic Wiccan who is able to create a small farming community. For the most part, the two characters have their own separate storylines which intersect only occasionally as they try to survive and contend with The Protector, a professor turned dictator who is using the lessons of the past to establish an empire.Given the scale of the story, it is not surprising that not all is resolved in this volume, which covers a period of around nine months after "the Change." The biggest question of all is barely touched in this story, namely what caused the Change. I'm not even sure if this will be covered in future stories, as the characters are focused on more practical issues. The source of the Change, however, does seem to be some sort of superior intelligence; chances are it is so much more advanced that any confrontation with it would be like a battle between a tiger and a mouse, utterly one-sided.Dies the Fire is a good novel - and I will probably read its sequels - but author S.M. Stirling is far from perfect. Gratingly, I found one error in the opening paragraphs, when he refers to the date as being early spring when it is really late winter. Also, I found it strange that none of the characters (including many who are at a bar) fail to note that it's St. Patrick's Day. But after these initial quibbles, the book settles down and has less issues, although at times the situations, dialogue and behavior of the characters sometimes borders on the silly or implausible.In part science fiction (with its speculations of an alternate society), in part fantasy (with all the sword fighting and the possibly supernatural agent that created the Change), Dies the Fire should appeal to fans of both genres, but it should also be enjoyed by mainstream readers. For me, it was a solid four-star read...good entertainment despite some minor flaws.

This is the first of the fifteen Change series of books by S.M. Stirling. I like the alternative history genre of fantasy, having been stopped in my tracks by Keith Roberts "Pavane" many years ago and gone on to discover many other fine writers using this form. I had read an excellent short story by him set in this world and had great hopes for this book that had been well reviewed.Unfortunately they were dashed. This is a terribly uneven book. Just when you are being drawn into the narrative everything screeches to a halt when Stirling inserts an enormous dollop of his research and describes something (usually weaponry) at inordinate length. Worse still his idea of a Scot or a British character does not seem to have been researched to the extent of meeting any, leading to some dreadful characterisation and cringe-making dialogue.This is a pity, since the central conceit is interesting and parts of the book are gripping. I hope that this may be merely a shaky start as I ordered the trilogy, so hope it improves in later volumes, which is possible I suppose.

The first and best of the trilogy. For (thankfully unexplained) reasons all technology stops working putting the world in a new dark age. This includes cars and guns etc. The novel tells the story of various characters and how they cope with the new world. While I enjoy this type of story generally, this series falls into many of the same pitfalls many of these types of novels do. By ridiculous coincidence the "goodies" manage to get together, form groups without any internal disputes over membership/leadership, manage to have all the necessary resources and skill sets required for living in a world without machinery, manage to only take good people with required skills and no one leaves or tries to take power and they manage to stay away from the general carnage that is all around them. The author cannot bear to part with his characters so none of the main characters die over the course of the 3 books until the very end of the 3rd. Don't get me wrong I am able to suspend belief for a good story (and this is a good story in the beginning) but I found it difficult to get through these especially towards the end. There is little action but what there is you already know outcome. The "goodies" have the best fighters, strategists and due to there lack of pomposity will always think of a way to win against the odds due to the "baddies" arrogance. The characters are all sterotypes the hero, the matriarch, the thinker, the fighter, etc etc. Early on in the story there are some good exciting and vaguely believable scenes but all too quickly it transforms into nonsense. Very detailed nonsense but nonsense all the same. Very disappointed as his guy has written many many books in the series and I had hoped it would be a world I could immerse myself in. Despite on some level, wanting to know how the world develops I won't read further than the first 3 books as I would a little more realism. Even in my fantasy.

Drivel, written by somebody far more obsessed with his survivalist knowledge than by the quality of his writing. Terrible dialogue, ridiculous two-dimensional characters and far too much description (excessive use of adjectives is the ultimate crime against good writing). A perfect example of all the worst tropes of post-apocalyptic fiction and definitely one for people who hate literature. By the way, this Penguin edition varies considerably from the Audible audiobook, if you are planning to read and listen in tandem.

I found the premise totally unconvincing. No explanation for why all the trappings of modern life fail. It is obviously just in order to set up a swords and sorcery world. It's lucky that the hero is an all round expert. Its not badly written or anything, I was just not able to suspend belief.

World without combustion. A must read